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The Question:
What is your opinion of the controversial art exhibit depicting the Virgin
Mary in Elephant Dung at The Brooklyn Museum?
Censorship is a touchy
subject in the arts and entertainment world. So when New York City Mayor
Rudy Giuliani said that the Brooklyn Museum of Arts should have its funding
pulled and thrown out of city-owned land for allowing a controversial
showcase to be displayed, tempers were ignited. Still, the question came
up: Where can the line be drawn?
In the October issue
of Cafe Contemplations, our celebrities go after the head of the Mayor,
saying some strong things about censorship. But it's not just a freedom
love fest. Some ridicule the Brooklyn Museum display and wonder if it
could be considered art at all. Take a look. Their perspectives might
just give you the basis for a good argument the next time the subject
comes up.
Ralph Covert:
"When determining the quality or tastefulness of art, one needs to
first define the terms and standards the art is being judged on. The purpose
of the work, and the purpose of the evaluation. The medieval composers
of religious music (the Gregorians and others like them) believed that
using thirds and sixths in harmony was too sexy, secular and vulgar, and
that the flatted fifth was one of the secret names of Satan. (Their Latin
name for it translates as the interval of the devil.) Clearly, then, tastefulness
in art is a fluid and relative property.
Quality is also subjective. The many sub-genres of music each have their
own standards by which the quality of their music is evaluated. Are Mozart
symphonies of less quality because they do not allow the improvisation
of jazz? Can a speed metal song be effectively evaluated with the aesthetic
standards of folk music, or reggae, or Tuvan throat singing as practiced
by Tibetan monks? The answer, in all these cases, is no because quality
is also a fluid and relative property. In the case of this specific incident,
the piece of art in question is intended to be a provocative social gesture.
Clearly, by the response, the artist has succeeded. Is it tasteful? Again,
compared to what. A Beatles song is more tasteful, and dropping napalm
on a baby is far less tasteful. Of course, no-one has yet tried to call
my second example art, but it does exist within the same real-world social
milieu of the art work, and as such is part of the broader continuum of
taste that a socially-provocative piece of art exists".
See the link
above for complete article with many interviews
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